The Winds of Change Saga: Cycles of Battle
by Shinzui Naru
Summary: (Book 2 in the saga) Duo meets a new friend and things start going crazy from there...read and review, please!!


# Cycles of Battle

Disclaimer: Usual disclaimers apply. I don't own Gundam Wing...blah, blah, blah. But I own the following characters: Rayne, the Riverdown/Icewing Gundam, Max Kine, and Shira Temorre. I made up all the people in the Asazi Corporation, including the Corporation itself. So please don't take my characters without my permission!

Setting: One year after _Silent Storm. Um, the war with Libra ended the same way it did in the show, but Endless Waltz never happened. Trowa hasn't regained his memory yet, either. Oh, and Dorothy Catalonia didn't die at the end of the series in this story. _

Other Notes: I'm sorry that this isn't as long as _Silent Storm, _and it may not be as good. But this one being written is necessary for me to write the next story. Remember that this takes place after _Silent Storm and doesn't follow everything from the series. *Sigh* I know this isn't as good as __Silent Storm was, but the next one should be better because I didn't make it up as I went along. And hopefully I won't get writer's block for that story. Sorry to 1x2 and 3x4 fans…there's a little romance in the end, but not with them…and don't worry, it's not _too_ sappy. I'm saving that for the _next_ story._

One more note…I may have gotten some of the information wrong for chapter 6, but if I did then don't flame me. Anyways, read, enjoy, and PLEASE review!

## Chapter 1: Familiar Faces...?

The rain fell hard as Duo walked, covering his head and a paper in his hand with his umbrella while reading the paper at the same time. He got so absorbed in it that he hardly noticed as a fierce wind pulled his umbrella away from his head, until he felt raindrops in his hair. He forced the umbrella back upright, shook a few droplets of water off of the paper and continued reading.

_"That's right," he thought. __"It's been a whole year..." The paper in his hand was a report of death that he had typed up, with the help of Quatre. Max Kine, the person's long-time friend, had also given them some information. And yet neither he nor Quatre wanted to tell Max that she was dead._

Maybe Max would never know.

_'Year: A. C. 195_

_Name: Rayne Cetauri_

_Age: 15_

_Eye color: Blue-violet_

_Hair color: Brown_

_Ethnic Group: American_

_Birthplace: Colony 06E3_

_Occupation: Pilot_

_Mobile Suit: Gundam 06/ Neo-6_

_Cause of Death: Explosion_

_Family: '_

And that was all the paper said. They had left the last part blank on purpose, but they didn't know why. Duo wondered what else could be put on it, but he could think of nothing. He folded the paper and put it in his pocket.

He stared at the ground in concentration as he walked, but it was broken when someone suddenly ran in front of him and was knocked to the ground.

"Hey! Watch where you're goin'!" an agitated female voice snapped. Duo looked at her for a moment and muttered an apology. He helped her to her feet. Then he looked at her face, and took a double take.

"Rayne?!" The girl stared at him, a mixed look of shock and surprise on her face. "Rayne Cetauri!" Duo exclaimed again. The girl shook her head.

"No," she disagreed. "My name is Shira."

"Oh," Duo said. 

"Shira Temorre." He looked again at Shira and began to notice the differences between her and his former friend. Her hair, while cut almost the same as Rayne's, was black with just the slightest hint of brown. And she seemed to glare at the world through icy blue eyes, rather than Rayne's kind blue-violet ones.

"No, you're not her."

"But...do you _know Rayne?" Shira asked, a hint of hope in her voice._

"Well...yeah, why?"

"I've been lookin' for her. You have an idea of where I can find her?"

"Why...?" Duo wondered.

"Rayne's my twin sister. Now where is she?"

"She never told me that she had a sister," Duo muttered.  
"You probably never asked," Shira snapped. "Okay, I wasn't born to the name Temorre, but my parents practically abandoned me at a boarding school. I figured that if they don't want me to be part of the family, then I wasn't. So I changed my name. Anyways, do you know where my sister is or not?"

"I can't believe no one told you." Shira blinked in surprise.

"Told me what?"

"Rayne...she died. A year ago today."

Shira just stared blankly for a minute, then a look of disbelief crossed her face.

"No way," she muttered. "Rayne can't be dead...she can't be! " Duo shook his head.

"She is." An angry look crossed Shira's face and she let out a sharp cry.

"Who killed her?" she demanded, brushing away the wet hair that clung to her face.

"She kind of...killed herself." He winced. _"Bad choice of words, genius."_

"What...do you mean, killed herself?"

"Come on," Duo said to Shira, whose eyes were now full of tears. "I'll explain everything to you on the way."

"Hold on, creep!" Shira swatted his hand away. "Why the hell do you think I would go somewhere with a total stranger?!"

"Sorry," Duo apologized. "My name's Duo. Duo Maxwell. I may run and hide, but I never tell a lie." He grinned. Shira rolled her eyes and wiped a tear away from her cheek.

"I doubt that." Duo started walking. Shira, having not noticed this before now, ran to catch up with him. "Hey, wait! Where are you going?! Okay, fine! I'm coming too! WAIT!"

~*~

Quatre sighed as he looked out one of the windows in the Winner mansion. The pilots had all gone their separate ways after the war, now he didn't know where any of them were.

It had been one year since the last battle. A whole year. Quatre still remembered every bit of it. Every move he made while piloting Sandrock, every word said, all of the friends who fought alongside of him. 

He honored that memory. And he silently made an apology to everyone he killed in that battle, not for the first time since the war ended.

_"I have to get out of here," he thought as he stood up...and left._

~*~

"I don't believe this," Shira muttered to herself after Duo explained everything to her. "Rayne wasn't an idiot, or a chicken...but she was never that brave." Duo shrugged.

"Wars just do things to people," he said.

"Yeah, well, Rayne must not have been thinking. She always used to tell me...we -me, her, and her best friend Max- would be talking about who we would be when we got older, and she said that she'd never die. That's what she would always say. I would ask 'what about when you get too old?' And she would just say..." Shira trailed off and sighed. "Never mind."

They walked for a while in silence.

"So..." Duo said quietly, more to hear something other than the silence than to start a conversation.

"Hey, why try to break the quiet? There's nothing more to talk about," Shira told him bitterly.

"What's your problem?" Duo demanded, stopping to ask the question.

"_My problem?! Well...what's __your problem?!"_

"I don't have a problem! _You do!" He sighed and put his hands in his pockets. "Oh, forget it. You're almost as impossible to talk to as Heero."_

"Who's Heero?" Shira asked.

"Heero Yuy. One of the other Gundam pilots."

"But...wasn't Mr. Yuy a leader in the colonies a long time ago? He was assassinated, right?" Duo nodded.

"Yeah. How'd you know about that?" he wondered. Shira almost laughed.

"I lived in the colonies. Who _didn't know about him there? So...tell me about this other Heero."_

"Doesn't talk a lot, seems to like putting bones back into place in front of other people..." Duo recalled the first time he met Heero and grimaced, the distinct _'crack' noise of setting bones coming back to him. "People called him a 'perfect soldier'. I have to admit, he was. Guess he still is. I dunno, I haven't seen him in a while."_

"You don't keep in touch with him or the others?" Shira asked.

"Nah." Duo shook his head. "We all decided it would be best if we went our separate ways. Besides," he paused to grin, "Being around Heero for too long can grind your nerves."

"Oh..." Shira trailed off. "It's kind of the same way living with Rayne. She would be nice almost all the time...and it got annoying, you know? But then again, if you made her mad she'd tackle you." She laughed. "I almost miss that."

"I've been meaning to ask...why'd you come looking for her?"

"She's my sister!" Shira snapped. "Don't you think I'd be the least bit concerned after I try calling home and the 'service you requested is offline'?! We didn't follow the news at my school...I never knew about the colony, or my parents...so I went to the library and pulled up some news articles, and I found it." She growled. "No one bothered to tell me that my parents were killed and that my sister was probably with them."

"I bet no one told you she was a Gundam pilot, either?"

"See?! Almost everyone else knew about all this...except for me! God, why do I always have to be the last one to find out everything?"

"Jeez," Duo muttered quietly. "You don't have to get so worked up over one little thing." He suddenly got an idea. "Hey, there's something I want to show you. C'mon."

## Chapter 2: Quatre's Encounter

Quatre looked down the silent, empty street and sighed. _"Well, I'm on my way...but to where?" He took off his jacket -it wasn't cold enough to wear one- and started walking...deciding that he would know when he got there._

After a while he saw bright lights in the distance. Wondering what they were, he continued towards them.

"Huh," he muttered when he found the source of the lights. "A carnival." He saw a large circus tent with a few small trailers around it, shrugged, and decided to check it out. _"It wouldn't hurt to have a little fun." He paid for a ticket, went in, and sat down._

A few acts came and went, bringing cheers from the crowd...but Quatre sat silent in thought, wondering why he was drawn here. The next act came on...

Then he knew.

It was a knife-throwing act. Quatre noticed that the performer, Catherine Bloom, was very talented at it. She deftly flung the knives at her target, a boy maybe a year older than Quatre, who never flinched at all. 

The first thing Quatre noticed was the guy's hair. It was so familiar...and then something in his mind snapped, and a name popped into his head.

_"Trowa!"_

The act ended soon enough, and the audience again cheered. The performers took a bow, and the boy's half-mask fell off, revealing his face. Quatre instantly recognized him as Trowa Barton. 

_"I have__ to talk to him...there's no way to make up for what I did but I have to at least tell Trowa that I'm sorry," he thought with determination. __"I will."_

~*~

"Cathy," Catherine looked up from her costume chest, where she had just finished putting up her show clothes. Her brother Trowa stood in the doorway.

"Oh, hi Trowa," she said. She looked at him with a warm smile on her face. "Is there something you need?"

"I just wanted to congratulate you on another great performance," he explained. Then, as an afterthought, he added, "And for not killing me." Catherine laughed.

"You were pretty good yourself. I mean, it's not like we've been putting on this act for over a year or anything..." Now it was Trowa's turn to smile.

"I was also going to ask if you knew where we were heading next. Everyone seems to be packing up to leave."

"Oh, yeah. I think..." Catherine trailed off as she went through some papers on her vanity. "No, I don't know. Sorry, Trowa. I guess you'll have to ask someone else." Trowa nodded. He opened the door to leave her room. "G'night," Catherine called after him.

"Yeah, good night." He walked into the night air and sighed. Suddenly, he got the feeling that something wasn't right, that something wasn't where it needed to be...

_"It's nothing," Trowa told himself as he walked, shaking the feeling away._

He felt the presence of someone...like someone was watching him. On instinct, he stopped...he froze. And then he heard footsteps in the grass.

"It really _is you," he heard. Trowa turned around to face a platinum blond youth._

"Who...who are you?" he asked.

"Trowa, don't you remember me?" the young man asked. "I-it's me, Quatre." Trowa shook his head.

"I don't know you," he said. Quatre opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a crash, and then...

"TROWA!" came Catherine's frightened scream from her trailer.

"What the..." Trowa trailed off as he ran to his sister's aid. Quatre followed him.

He stopped in the doorway to see Catherine backed up against a wall with a gun pointed at her. Trowa's eyes went from Catherine to the person who held the gun, a relatively short woman with long black hair.

"You're lucky," the woman sneered, not noticing the two newcomers. "You have the honor of being killed by the Cat...the first victim in the name of the Asazi Corporation."

"Catherine!" Trowa yelled. The woman, who called herself the Cat, turned around and scowled at him. But then her gray eyes lit up, and a strange smile played on her lips.

"Trowa Barton," she said with a laugh. "Ex-pilot...am I right?" Her eyes went from him to Quatre. "And Quatre Raberba Winner...having two of the Gundam pilots in one place makes my job so much easier."

"Leave my sister alone," Trowa commanded. "Who are you?!"

"That's right!" the 'Cat' gasped melodramatically. "I haven't properly introduced myself! I am Meera Rahn. Remember the name, you will learn to fear it," she hissed.

"What are you doing here?!" Quatre demanded.

"That's none of your business!" Meera snapped. She held her arm out, gun in hand, aiming at Trowa. "But now, your time is up." Unnoticed in the back of the trailer, Catherine stood up and grabbed a small ceramic lamp from her vanity table.

"You think you've got us," Quatre said.

"But you're forgetting one rule of combat," Trowa added. "Never turn your back on an enemy." Catherine had the lamp over Meera's head before she could turn around, and she realized her mistake one moment too late as the lamp came crashing down on her head and she collapsed onto the floor.

"She'll probably wake up soon," Quatre said. Trowa nodded in agreement. They both left. Catherine went as well.

When they were far from the trailer, they stopped.

"Trowa, you saved my life," Catherine told him. "Thanks." Only then did they really notice Quatre, who stood a distance apart from them. They both looked at him for an answer.

"Who was she?" Trowa asked him.

"I don't have a clue," Quatre answered truthfully. "But I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the Gundams...or their pilots."

"The Gundams?" Catherine repeated.

"Remember? She said that 'having two of the Gundam pilots in the same place makes her job so much easier'." Quatre looked at Trowa. "Whether you remember or not, Trowa, your life is in danger because you were the pilot of a Gundam." Then his eyes went to Catherine. "And maybe yours as well, because you know him." 

"So...what do we do?" Trowa asked.

"What I want to know is: what is the Asazi Corporation?" Catherine asked.

"I don't know," Quatre told her. "My best guess is that someone is getting restless...someone who has a lot of power." He paused for a moment, and then continued, "There's something we can do about it, though."

"What?" Trowa queried.

"I've got to go...Trowa, if you want to help then you can come. If not..." Quatre trailed off.

"I'm coming," Trowa said. He looked at Catherine. "You should go somewhere that's safer than here, sis." Catherine was about to object, but the look on her brother's face told her not to. She nodded.

"Good luck, Trowa," she said sadly. After their words of good-bye, Quatre and Trowa left.

"Where are we going?" Trowa asked.

"To the Earth."

~*~

Meera stood up and rubbed her head, looking around her.

"Damnit! How did I let a couple of kids trick me?!" she wondered. A muffled ringing noise came from her pocket. She walked out of Catherine's trailer and pulled something out of her pocket: a cell phone.

"Yes?" she asked.

There was a low voice on the other end.

"No, not yet. But I-" she paused and listened to the voice. "What? But I-" she paused again. Then, in a defeated tone, she said, "Yessir. I'll be there ASAP." The conversation ended.

"They're gonna pay," she muttered. "Now it's personal..._no one gets the best of the Cat." She started walking. "No one."_

## Chapter 3: Back Again

It was into the early morning when Duo and Shira arrived at their destination. There was a small house there...small in comparison to the mobile suit hangar very close by. 

"This place is way too big for just one person," she said, looking back at Duo.

"The only reason I hang around here is the Gundams. They're out in the hangar. Everyone left 'em here, so I decided to keep an eye on 'em...until their pilots decide to come back." Shira nodded.

"I get it."

"But before the war ended, there were four of us here."

"Four?" Shira asked.

"Me, Heero, Quatre, and Rayne," Duo explained.

"Rayne...what did her Gundam look like? I knew that Dad was building one...but I never got to see it."

"I don't have a picture," Duo told her. "But I think...yeah, Rayne's friend Max has one."

"Max?!" Shira exclaimed.

"You know him?"

"He was Rayne's best friend. Before I got sent to boarding school, we used to hang out a lot...but I was kind of a tag-along," she told him. "Does he...he knows about what happened, right?"

"Um...well, I mean...uh..." Duo stuttered. He looked down at his feet. "No."

"Okay, let me get this straight...Rayne's been dead for a whole freakin' year, and no one bothered to tell her best friend?!" Shira demanded. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I guess that even after facing certain death a million times before, neither me or Quatre had the courage to tell him. And Heero was already gone."

"Well maybe someone should tell him." 

"Go ahead," Duo said. Shira pulled out a phone book, found the number, and dialed it.

It rang once...

Twice...

Three times...

"Hello?" 

"Is this Max Kine?" Shira asked.

"Um...yeah. Who's this?"

"Hey Max! It's Shira!"

"Shira...?" Shira sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Rayne's sister," she told him.

"Oh, hi Shira! How're you?" he asked.

"Same as always...you?"

"I'm good. So...why'd you call?"

"It's about Rayne," Shira said, her voice suddenly taking on a very serious tone. She waited for Max's reply.

"What about her?"

"I just found out about this myself, but...jeez, I can't believe that no one told you."

"Told me what? What happened, Shira?!"

"Max, Rayne died. A year ago. And I'm sorry, I didn't know until yesterday..." No reply came from Max. But Shira could hear his harsh breathing through the phone receiver.

"Rayne..." came a faint whisper.

"A-are you okay, Max?" Shira began to get concerned. After a brief pause, Max replied,

"Yeah, sure. I'm great."

"You...are?" she asked in disbelief.

"Of course," Max answered calmly. "Why wouldn't I be?" Shira's voice rose in panic as she spoke to him.

"Because you just learned that your best friend died!" she shrieked. "How could you possible be okay?!" 

"Just trust me," came his voice. 

_"There's definitely something wrong with him," Shira concluded. __"He went ballistic when his dog died...how could he be so calm about Rayne? Maybe he's flipping out..."_

"Listen," he said, "I gotta go. Bye, Shira." 

"Max! Max, wait! What the hell is wrong with you?!" But he had already hung up. "Damnit!" she hissed. She slammed down the receiver and stomped back into the other room.

"What'd he say?" Duo asked.

"He said he was 'great'," she snapped.

"Wow. I guess he took it pretty well."

"Are you kidding?! I bet he's going nuts right now! I mean, he was freaked out every time one of his pets died...why would he be so calm about his friend?"

"Last time I saw them together they were kind of...together, actually," Duo told her.

"So now she's his _girlfriend? That's gonna make it harder on him…and why didn't I know about this?!" _

"Chill, Shira. You can almost see the steam rising from your head," Duo joked. "You didn't know 'cause you didn't ask." 

"Damnit, this isn't a time for jokes!" Duo was about to reply when there was a knock on the door. He went to open it, and...

"Quatre!" he said with a laugh. 

"Hi Duo," the young pilot said. Trowa arrived at the door. "Can we come in?"

"Hey, you brought Trowa! Sure you can come in. There's someone you need to meet..." Duo stepped out of the way and both Trowa and Quatre entered the house. 

Shira entered from the other room. No sooner had she set foot on the carpet than...

"Rayne?!" She winced and looked up. Standing there were two other people that she had never seen. One was tall, with green eyes and brown hair that partially covered his face. The other had blue eyes and blond hair. He was the one who had spoken.

"This is Shira," Duo said. Shira glared at him.

"I can introduce myself, thank you very much!" she snapped. Then she cleared her throat and said, "My name's Shira Te...Cetauri." The blond guy looked at Duo. "I'm Rayne's sister."

"Well, I'm Quatre," the blond said. Shira looked to the other guy.

"And you are..." she trailed off, waiting for his response.

"My name is Trowa," he said.

"Oh. Well, it's nice to meet both of you," Shira said, keeping her eyes on the one who had called himself Trowa.

"So why'd you guys come here?" Duo asked after a minute of silence. 

"It's about the Gundams," Quatre told him.

"What about them?"

"Someone's looking for the pilots." 

"Yeah. She attacked my sister," Trowa added.

"Because she wanted to get to you," Quatre pointed out. "She calls herself the 'Cat'. And she apparently works for some kind of Asazi Corporation."

"So we should find out about this...Asazi Corporation?" Shira suggested.

"I guess," Duo said. "But if they're after the Gundam pilots..." 

"Heero doesn't know!" Quatre realized.

"Oh, man, you're right! And neither does Wufei!" Duo agreed.

"Who's Wufei?" Shira asked.

"We'll explain on the way," Duo told her. "Right now, we gotta get going."

"Where _is Heero?" Quatre wondered. None of them had a clue._

~*~

Heero slammed his book shut as he finished his homework. With a sigh he leaned back in his desk chair. It was so quiet in his room at the school... He closed his eyes. It was already dark outside. His work had taken longer than he expected.

A loud _crash made him open his eyes. In one move he pushed back his chair, stood up, and drew his gun from his pocket. He saw the shadow of a person outline the window and his eyes narrowed._

"Looks like I have the right room," said the person with a laugh. "Good thing, because I really wouldn't want to do that again."

"Who are you?" Heero demanded, his gun arm extended towards the person. The person took a step forward.

Another.

Another...

Into the dim light of his desk lamp. Heero first saw her gray eyes, then the rest of her. He asked again,

"Who are you?" The woman's eyes went to his gun.

"You wouldn't shoot me," she said, grinning.

"What makes you think I won't?" he demanded.

"You don't know whether or not I'm on your side." Heero gritted his teeth.

"From the way you're talking, I don't think you're on 'my side'," he snapped. "Now I'll ask this one more time: who the hell are you?"

"I am the Cat, Meera Rahn," she said quietly. Something in her pocket rang. She growled. "It looks like your life is safe. But the next time we meet, you will not get out so easily." Heero watched her retreat into the shadow and then through the window. He muttered to himself,

"There won't be a next time."

## Chapter 4: Next Battle...Libra?!

It was all over the news. Not a single person who owned a TV didn't know. On Earth, Quatre, Duo, Trowa, and Shira were wondering what to make of the broadcast.

"I don't believe this," Duo muttered.

"What?" Shira asked. "Has this happened before?"

"I expected this would happen," Quatre said, disregarding Shira's comment. "But not so soon..."

"Well it's been a year already..." Duo trailed off.

"A year since WHAT?!" Shira yelled, standing up and throwing her hands in the air. An awkward minute of quiet followed her outburst. Then, an explanation from Quatre that consisted of only two words:

"Battleship Libra." 

The whole house seemed to be covered by a silence.

"I swear, this thing looks exactly like Libra," Duo concluded, pointing to the image on the TV. He sighed. Shira looked in turn to each of the others. As her eyes met Trowa's, she looked away.

"They call it the Alpha Space Station," she told him. 

"Yeah, but they look _exactly the same," Duo objected. They all debated the subject while the newscast went on. Hearing a familiar name, Duo stopped talking and looked back at the TV._

"This recent break-in of the school dormitory has risen a question of how safe schools really are," said the reporter on the subject. "Although Heero Yuy was the only one attacked last night, the school officials fear it could happen again."

Everyone looked at each other and went back to the newscast.

"Heero has declined to have an interview but said he knows who the attacker was. He gave us a very...anonymous name, the 'Cat'."

"Cat?" Quatre and Trowa exclaimed. 

"Could it be..." Trowa trailed off.

"Meera?" Quatre finished. Duo and Shira looked at each other and shrugged.

"Who's Meera?" Duo asked.

"A spy," Quatre answered. "I'm sure that she's trying to get the Gundam pilots."

"By 'get' you mean kill, right?" Duo suggested. 

"Yeah," Quatre told him.

"So what're we gonna do about this?" Shira wondered.

"We could find Heero and explain what's going on," Quatre suggested.

"But," Trowa objected, "We don't know very much of what's going on ourselves." Duo leaned back and stretched his arms.

"We know that there's a new battleship. That's enough to go on," he said.

"For now," Quatre added.

"So what do we do?" Shira asked, a tone of nervousness in her voice.

"We get out to space and destroy the Alpha Space Station!" Duo said enthusiastically. 

"I guess that's the only choice we have," Quatre agreed. They started making arrangements for the trip.

~*~

"So," Shira said after their plan had been made, "We leave in the morning?" She stopped and looked around at everyone. Quatre had offered to cook dinner, and they sat at the kitchen table eating spaghetti.

"Yeah," Duo told her, then started shoveling food into his mouth again. Shira rolled her eyes and laughed.

"Here's a new name for you Duo: bottomless pit," Shira joked after Duo refilled his plate for the third time...or was it the fourth?

"I don't think I've ever seen one person eat that much in one sitting before," Trowa muttered. They all laughed a little and returned to their food.

When dinner was over, everyone voted Shira to clean up, and Trowa offered his assistance. The first few minutes passed with a tense silence. Then, Shira spoke up.

"You nervous?" she asked. Trowa looked at her from the dish he was putting away and replied,

"Not really. You?"

"Well...yeah, a little. But, y'know, not much," she replied. Trowa nodded and they finished in silence. Trowa left the room first, returning to his own, probably to sleep.

As Shira left the kitchen, she realized that her knees were shaking a little. _"What's wrong with me?" she wondered. __"I've never felt this way about a guy...but he is__ good-looking…"_

~*~

Heero started to pack his things and sighed. Before he could finish, the class bell rang. He picked up his books from his desk and walked to his homeroom.

"We'll all miss you, Mr. Yuy," the teacher said a few minutes before class ended. From one of the back rows, Relena Peacecraft was surprised.

_"He's leaving again," she thought to herself. _

Class ended. Relena rushed from her seat to catch up with Heero. As she did so, she asked, "You're leaving again?" Heero didn't reply. Relena recalled something she heard the previous day. "It's because of that space station, isn't it? You're going off to battle again?"

"It's none of your business," Heero said flatly. Relena stopped.

"Yes it is!" she exclaimed loudly. She saw the people around her stop and look at her. "It _is my business, Heero, because..." She swallowed hard, not able to finish her sentence. She looked at Heero, who -to her surprise- had a surprised expression on his face. In a flash it was gone, replaced by his familiar glare. Without giving Relena a reply, he walked away._

~*~

It was midnight when Heero finally reached his destination. He suppressed a yawn and sighed as he looked at what he reached: a seemingly abandoned mobile suit hangar, with a small house nearby. It was so familiar to him, and still so vague...

He walked towards the hangar and pulled the door open. To his surprise, all the lights were off and the whole building felt empty. He groped in the dark for a light switch on the wall, and after finding it, flipped it on.

The overhead lamps came on one at a time and as light poured into the room, Heero had to stop himself from crying out in horror.

Of the four Gundams that had been stored in the hangar, only one was there: the Wing Zero. He wondered frantically where the Wing Gundam had disappeared to. As he slammed the outside door behind him he found an attached note. It read: 

_Heero, we've borrowed the Wing Gundam. Since you've got the Wing Zero, we figured you wouldn't mind if Trowa used the Wing. See you on the battlefield!_

_-The other pilots_

He suddenly felt relieved to know that the Wing Gundam hadn't been stolen. 

"Well," he muttered, "Guess I'd better get going." He climbed into the Wing Zero's cockpit and the hatch closed behind him. Then, typing in a code, he felt a jolt as the Gundam transformed into something of a shuttle. The engine warmed up, heat crackling around it, and then the whole hangar shuddered as the Wing Zero was propelled into the air.

~*~

Shira sat up in bed and took a deep breath, waking from a bad dream. She felt a violent shaking all around her.

"What the hell?!" she cried as she jumped out of bed. "Earthquake!" She ran to the doorway and held onto the doorframe as she muttered every curse she could think of. Suddenly, the quaking stopped.

Shira gingerly took one step forward, out of her room, and then another. Then a few more.

"Huh, I guess it's over," she muttered. Then, looking down at the clothes she was wearing, her face turned red. _"What if the others come out here and see me like this?" she wondered. The image of the Gundam pilots seeing her in her pajamas was enough to make her run back to her room and change._

After putting on some decent clothes, she looked at her clock and smacked her forehead. "It's only midnight!" she cried. "Jeez Shira, you're a genius. What normal person would be wandering around for nothing at midnight?" She stopped and reconsidered her words. "Other than me," she added.

_"Wait a minute! Since when would I get so embarrassed about people seeing me in my pajamas?" she wondered silently. As she walked into the kitchen, she turned a light on and yawned. "Man, it's __gotta be later than midnight," she muttered. "Or at least, it __feels later than midnight."_

Pouring a glass of water, Shira sat at the table and sighed. The house was unusually quiet. She kept expecting to hear loud snoring coming from Duo's room. That noise alone was enough to fill the house. Shira smiled at the unusual silence, but it soon turned into a set frown.

"What was that earlier? Was it really an earthquake?" she asked herself aloud, and then she turned around to face the door to the hangar. Standing up, she grabbed her glass of water and walked into the hangar. Surprisingly, the lights were on. And even more surprising for Shira, all of the Gundams were gone.

"What..." she whispered, then she realized what had happened. "They left without me!" she shrieked. "Those jerks! How could they have left without me?!" Her angry remarks were interrupted by a yawn. She realized how tired she was.

"Oh, I'll deal with this in the morning." She went back to her room and fell face-first onto her bed, but she was asleep even before she hit the pillow.

As she woke up the next morning, Shira stretched her arms towards the ceiling and then faced the room's one small window. _"I love this place," she thought. __"No matter how good the colonies sound, I think I like the Earth more. Man, you can miss so much if you're living in the colonies..." She watched the sun rising above the forest that surrounded her._

After staring out the window for a while, Shira decided to get some breakfast. But after looking through the whole kitchen, she could find nothing. "Looks like I gotta go get something," she muttered. She looked into her pocket and pulled out some money, then nodded to herself and left the house.

~*~

"Man," Shira muttered as she walked out of the store, "I did _not get enough sleep last night!" She looked at the cereal box in her hand and grinned. "And I came all this way just to get a box of cereal!" She closed her eyes and laughed, which caused her to collide with another pedestrian._

"Sorry," she muttered as she looked at the other person.

"S'okay," the girl replied. She extended her hand to Shira. "I'm Hilde," she said. 

"Hi," Shira said while shaking Hilde's hand. "I'm Shira."

They talked for a little while, becoming fast friends. By chance Hilde looked over to the television store across the street and saw the news.

"Hey!" she shrieked when she saw the story. Shira looked at the TVs as well. On their screens were four mobile suits, the Gundams. Shira stomped her foot.

"I'm still mad at them," she said. 

"You know the Gundam pilots?" Hilde asked.

"Yeah, you do too?"

"Yup. Man, I can't believe Duo didn't even tell me he was going out to space!"

"They're Gundam pilots. You should know that if there's something going on involving the colonies and space, they're gonna check it out," Shira pointed out. "But they'll do almost anything not to get people like me involved."

"But I wish they'd let us help them," Hilde said. "They may not be able to do it alone!"

"I guess they're gonna try anyways."

"Well, we can try too!"

"Huh?" Shira asked. "What do you mean?"

"I say we get a shuttle and go help them!" Hilde explained. Shira laughed.

"Do you know how crazy that sounds?" she pointed out. "But...it might just work!"

"Let's get going then."

"Wait," Shira said. "There's someone I want to call first."

## Chapter 5: On the Inside

_"I don't see anything out here," Duo thought as he stared into the blackness of space. The absolute silence made him shiver._

"Are you sure it's out here?" Quatre's voice came through the com-link. 

"Yeah, pretty sure," Duo answered.

"I don't see anything here, Duo," Quatre told him.

"We probably need to look closer," Heero added, having heard the conversation. No one said anything for a few minutes as they searched for the space station. None of them could see it. Suddenly, Trowa called to the others,

"I think that's it." He moved the Wing Gundam closer to what he pointed at. The others just stared at it. Suddenly, Duo cleared his throat and spoke up.

"I was right," he said. "It _does look like Libra."_

"Whatever they're trying, we need to hurry up and stop them," Heero pointed out.

"Then there's no time to waste," Quatre said. "We should get going."

~*~

"So who are we waiting for?" Hilde asked after a while.

"A friend of mine," Shira told her. "He should be here soon."

"I'm here." The two girls turned to the source of the voice. 

"Hey Max," Shira greeted. Max looked at Hilde, then back to Shira. "Oh. Max, this is Hilde. Hilde, this is Max. He's a friend of my sister's."

"_Was," Max corrected. "She was a good friend of mine."_

"It's nice to meet you," Hilde told him. He nodded in return.

"So what did you need me for?" he asked, turning to Shira.

"I thought you'd like to help us," Shira told him. "We're going out to space to help the Gundam pilots."

"But how are you gonna get there?" he wondered. Hilde jerked a thumb at the building behind them.

"We planned to borrow one of their shuttles," she said.

"Sounds good to me." Max paused and looked at the building. "When do we leave?" Shira smiled and put a hand on his shoulder.

"_That's the Max I know!" she said jokingly._

"How's now for our leaving time?" Hilde suggested.

"Any time is good for me," Shira said.

"Me too," Max added.

"Alright then." Hilde clapped her hands together and grinned. "Let's get going."

"I'm sure they wouldn't mind if we borrowed one little shuttle...would they, Max?" Shira asked, turning to her friend.

"Probably not," Max told her. "I guess we'll have to see." 

~*~

Relena turned off the news and sighed. _"This is going to be chaos," she thought sadly. __"Is there anything that anyone can do to stop it from happening?" She stood up, and her face took on a determined glare._

"I'm going out to space," she told herself. "I just hope that I can help work things out..."

~*~

Shira looked around the room and tapped her foot impatiently. A sign on the wall said 'Welcome to the Asazi Corporation!' She turned her attention to Max, who sat beside her and looked as calm as he could be.

"How can you be so calm?" she asked. Max didn't answer. "Well?" Max opened his eyes and motioned for Shira to look up at the corner of the room. There was a small video camera recording their every move.

"See?" Shira nodded. Max closed his eyes again and leaned back. "Good."

The door opened. Shira, Max, and Hilde looked silently for a moment at the person standing there.

"Hello," the person said. He walked into the room. "I'm Lieutenant Garn. State your names." He looked first to Shira.

"Oh! Uh...Shira Cetauri." Garn looked at Max.

"Max Kine," he said.

"Hilde Schbeiker."

"Well," Garn paused and looked at a few sheets of paper in his hands. "Your forms seem to be in order. And you seem to be very talented young people."

"Thank you," Shira said. Garn looked up for a moment and then back to the papers. Shira cleared her throat and asked, "Does this mean that we're in?" Garn nodded.

"Yes," he told them. They breathed a silent sigh of relief. A soldier came up and tapped Garn on the shoulder, then whispered something to the lieutenant. "I'll be right there." He turned to the three new soldiers. "Someone will be here in a few minutes to debrief you." He walked away and muttered, "I have more important things to do."

"This is weird," Max said. "I never thought I'd be doing something like this..."

"What, enrolling in an enemy army to cause some serious damage?" Shira asked. Max nodded. "Neither did I." All three of them sat down and waited.

"I wonder where he went," Shira said a few minutes later. Without warning a siren started blaring, but stopped almost immediately.

"What the-" Max began, but was cut off when the door opened.

"You're the new soldiers?" a man asked from the doorway. Max, Hilde, and Shira stood up and nodded. "A shuttle has requested permission to dock. Apparently it's Relena Peacecraft, but we need some extra security in case she tries something."

"Right," Hilde said. They all nodded and looked at each other, then followed the man out of the room.

~*~

The security was tighter than Relena had expected as she left her shuttle. She looked at the soldiers as she walked, and they stared at her in return. She stopped as she thought her eyes caught a familiar face, but then she continued walking.

_"If no one can stop him, then the colonies may be destroyed. Why would he want to destroy the colonies any way?" she wondered._

She stopped in front of a door a few minutes later. There was a large video screen on the wall beside the door. She turned to it as it turned on, and she saw a shadowed face, but couldn't make out any of the features on it.

"Miss Peacecraft," came a voice. Relena could tell that it was a man she was speaking to.

Yes," Relena said. "Since you know my name, I would appreciate being able to call you by yours." She paused, and then continued. "You're in charge of all this, aren't you?" The man laughed.

"Yes. I'm Trei Asazi," he told her. Then he asked, "Why have you come out here?"

"Mr. Asazi, I was hoping that we could talk rationally about your plans for this space station," Relena said. 

"Now why would I want to do that?" Asazi asked.

"These battles you're creating are unnecessary. I believe-"

"I think you've misunderstood our intentions. We don't plan to negotiate with anyone."

"Mr. Asazi, please listen to me!" Relena pleaded. 

"Who are you speaking on behalf of, the Earth or the colonies?"

"Why do you want to destroy the colonies?!" Relena demanded. Asazi laughed.

"Miss Peacecraft, I think I've heard enough from you. Now I have reason to believe that you are a traitor to the Earth."

"That's nonsense!" Relena snapped.

"I'll be the judge of that." He stopped for a moment, and Relena held her breath. Then he said to the two guards behind her, "You know what to do." Relena turned around to look at them, and they both nodded.

"Come with us, Miss Peacecraft," one of them said. They led her by the arm to a cell. She walked inside and they closed the door. No one was around to hear what Asazi said next.

"Now that she is our prisoner, the Gundams are sure to come. And then we can destroy all of them..." Then the video screen turned itself off.

~*~

Quatre listened to the news in the Sandrock Gundam as they headed for the Alpha space station. 

"Apparently Relena Peacecraft has been captured by the Asazi Corporation..." Quatre's eyes widened and he opened a com-link with Heero.

"Heero, have you heard the news?" he asked.

"What news?" was Heero's answer.

"They've got Relena locked up in there," Quatre told him. For a minute, Heero gave no reply. "...Heero?"

_"Why should I care?" Heero wondered to himself. __"She's not of any importance to me." He shook his head and continued to the space station in silence._

~*~

Shira looked around and silently left her post. She wandered around until she found Hilde.

"Hey," she whispered to Hilde.

"What?" Hilde responded.

"They've got Relena Peacecraft locked up in one of those cells," she told her comrade.

"They do?!" 

"Uh-huh. Should we go let her out?"

"I bet they're trying to get the Gundam pilots' attention," Hilde muttered. "So it'd be a good idea to let her go." Shira nodded.

"Thought so. Listen, I'm pretty sure that Max is keeping watch somewhere around there. Let's go!" Unnoticed by anyone, they slipped away and tried to find Max or Relena.

"Shira!" came a hiss from behind the two girls. They stopped and turned around. Max was standing in the shadows right behind them.

"Hi Max," Shira greeted.

"So you've heard?" he asked. The two girls nodded.

"You have too?"

"Yeah," Max whispered. "Come on, this way!" Max led them to a block of cells, most of which were closed and locked. But a few of them were empty.

"Where is she?" Hilde asked.

"In there," Max said, pointing to one of the cells in the middle with a locked door.

"Then open the door!" Shira snapped, raising her voice a little above a whisper. Max nodded and went to the door. He put a key in it, turned the handle and pulled it open. Relena was leaning against the back wall.

She looked up as the door opened but didn't say anything for a minute. Then she asked,

"How could you believe anything that man says?" Max shook his head.

"We don't," he told her.

"Then what are you doing?"

"Getting you out of here," Shira said. She stepped in front of Max. "We're not really with these guys."

"I see," Relena muttered. 

"So do you want out of there or not?" Shira asked impatiently. Without answering, Relena walked out of the cell. 

"Thank you," she said when she was out. Then she took a closer look at Shira. "Have I seen you before?" she asked.

"Huh? No, I don't think so," Shira answered.

"You just looked a little familiar..."

"Hey, we almost didn't introduce ourselves," Max said. "I'm Max." 

"Oh, and my name's Shira."

"And I already know Hilde," Relena added. "Nice to meet you."

"So now we can proceed to get our butts outta here," Hilde suggested. They turned to leave but found themselves blocked off by soldiers.

"Ohhh shit," Max muttered.

"Ditto," Shira and Hilde added. They all backed up and found themselves in the cell that they had just let Relena out of.

"I'm getting a strange feeling of déjà vu," Relena mumbled as the door slammed.

"Well, this is wonderful," Hilde said sarcastically. 

"So what do we do now?" Max asked.

"The only thing we _can do," Shira told him. "We wait." _

## Chapter 6: The Gundam Team

"Look, there it is!" Quatre exclaimed. The shadow of the Alpha Space Station blotted out the stars in front of their vision. Heero suddenly increased his speed.

"Wait a minute! How do we get in?" Duo asked. "I don't think they'd let us in if we came in our Gundams." Suddenly he heard a voice over the com-link.

"Calling the Gundam pilots!" Duo flipped on the vid-link.

"Hey," he said. "Who's this?"

"This is the Peacemillion." (This is what I was talking about…if the Peacemillion got destroyed then I didn't know about it.)

"Howard?!" 

"You got it, Duo." Duo smiled, then saw movement from the corner of his line of vision. He turned and saw that Heero was transforming his Gundam into flight mode.

"Oh, jeez, what's he doing?" Duo wondered. "He'd better not get himself killed…"

~*~

How Heero managed to get in without any extra attention, he didn't know. He left the Wing Zero where it would be out of sight from anyone who wanted to find anything unusual. As he walked down the halls of Alpha, he couldn't help but feel that something was strange…

_"Something's not right,"_ he thought. _"The security should be tighter. Especially if they've got Relena…am I walking into a trap?"_ On his left was a computer control room. He pulled out his gun and silently opened the door. Seeing no one inside, he walked in and looked around.

"Security," he muttered, reading from the computer. "That could work…" He started to look through the operations of the computer and nodded. Then he began to type…

~*~

"How long do you think we'll be here for?" Shira asked.

"I dunno," Max answered. "They probably know that we're not on their side…"

"No," Shira said sarcastically, "Ya think?!"

"What I wanna know is: how do we get out of here?" Hilde asked, leaning against one of the walls. 

"Max, do you have a key?" Relena turned to Max.

"Nope," Max told her. "I left the key in the door." Shira looked at him in the darkness.

"That was a smart think to do now, wasn't it?"

"Shira, just shut up! This is no time to be a smartass!" Max snapped.

"Well I think it is," Shira retorted.

"Would both of you shut up?!" Hilde demanded. "Right now we need to worry about our situation…not about keeping you from killing each other!"

"Sorry," Max and Shira said in unison. Then they all proceeded to sit in silence.

"So what'll they do with us?" Hilde asked after a while.

"No idea," Max answered.

"Mr. Asazi is insane…he could kill us, or he may do something worse," Relena muttered gravely.

_"That's a very happy thought,"_ Shira thought to herself.

"Well he _must_ be out of his mind to find a reason to lock you up," Hilde agreed.

"He said I was a traitor to Earth!"

"So…he wants to destroy the colonies?" Max asked. 

"Yes," Relena said, unable to give him a nod in the almost-complete darkness.

"Why? I mean, with every other war people were fighting _for_ the colonies…or over them. It just doesn't make sense!"

"Well, I think that maybe he wants revenge on my brother…" Relena trailed off sadly.

"_What?!_" Shira, Hilde, and Max exclaimed.

"He's really the one who gave the orders to destroy the Earth, remember? I- I never really thought that he would do it…that he _could_ do it. When he fired the main cannon at the Earth…" Relena trailed off.

"Maybe Mr. Asazi lost someone when that happened," Hilde suggested. "I mean, his home could have been destroyed or something, you know?"

"Well, I don't care why he's doing all of this, I just want OUT!" Shira yelled. Suddenly, the door swung open.

"Woah," Max whispered. Shira grinned and stood up.

"Cool," she said. Then she looked at the others. "Well, what're you waiting for? Let's go!"

"Shira, wait! It could be a trap!" Max pointed out. Shira looked around outside the door.

"I don't see anyone," she told him.

"Then we're outta here," Hilde agreed, standing up and walking out the door. Relena and Max followed.

"So who did that anyways?" Shira asked. "I want to tell them that I owe 'em a favor."

~*~

"She'd better be able to find her own way out," Heero muttered as he looked at the computer screen. "Now, let's see…control center. Perfect."

"Hey!" Heero turned to the door, his hand immediately flew to his gun. He let out a small sigh of relief when he saw why it was. "Relax, it's just us," said Duo. Heero also saw Quatre and Trowa…and Wufei.

"We've got work to do. Duo, Wufei, you guys find explosives and set them up," Heero commanded. He clarified where they were. Duo and Wufei nodded.

"C'mon Wufei, let's go cause some mass destruction," Duo said, and they left. "You two try to find Relena and the others, and get them out of here."

"Others…?" Quatre trailed off.

"Yeah. There were three other people with her. I recognized Hilde, but I don't know the other two. They were calling each other Shira and Max, though." Trowa couldn't help it; his eyes widened. Quatre saw this and quickly turned away.

"We'll find them," Trowa said. 

"What're you going to do, Heero?" Quatre then asked.

"I'm gonna try to shut down the main systems. You guys get going."

"Right. Come on, Quatre." Trowa and Quatre left to go in search of the escaped prisoners.

~*~

"Can we move a little faster? The last thing I want to do here is get caught," Hilde said as she, Relena, Max, and Shira made their way down one of the many halls of the space station.

"Max, this hallway looks a lot like the last one we came down," Shira pointed out.

"I'm doing the best I can!" Max told them.

"Well I think we're lost," Shira snapped. They turned the corner and continued walking. Suddenly, Relena stopped in front of an open door.

"Hey!" she said. "That's-"

"Sssh!" Hilde told her, pulling her away from the doorway. 

"But that's Heero!" Relena whispered.

"Yeah, and he looks like he's busy. We'd better leave him alone."

"You think he's the one who opened the cell door?" Max suggested.

"Maybe," Relena told him.

"Come on, let's keep going," Hilde suggested.

"Guys…" Shira trailed off. "We know that we're gonna get lost, or separated, or something…how about this: if one of us gets separated and finds a way out, they leave."

"That's a very noble idea, Shira," Relena told her.

"Um, thanks. So is it a deal?" The others agreed. Then they continued to wander down the halls.

Meanwhile, Heero was still toying with the Alpha's main systems. He was having excellent luck in stalling them so far.

"Main power," he muttered to himself. "That's what I need. Let's see…shut down. Complete." The lights went out and the computer shut off.

"What the hell?!" Shira exclaimed as the lights turned off. She and the others were left in complete darkness. 

"Everyone, try to stay together!" Relena reminded them.

"I think we _are_ trying," Shira pointed out. "There's a door here, come on!" They groped blindly through the darkness in search of doorways and halls. Suddenly a dim light turned on.

"Backup power supply," Hilde explained. 

"Is everyone here?" Shira asked. "Where's Max?"

"He probably got lost while the power was out. We'll find him," Hilde said.

"I hope so," Shira said worriedly. "I really hope so…"

~*~

"Where'd they go…? Girls? Shira! Hilde! Relena! Where the hell are they?" Max asked himself as he wandered down a long corridor. "How do I keep getting myself into these messes?" He kept walking down the hallway, looking for his missing friends.

"Well," Quatre said to Trowa in another side of the space station, "I guess Heero got to the main power supply."

"And they had a backup power," Trowa added.

"Well, we still have to find our friends," Quatre reminded him.

"Oh, yeah. They couldn't have gotten too far."

"Let's hope so."

Duo and Wufei finally managed to find the room where the explosives had been kept. Duo opened the door and gaped. Then a slow smile spread across his face.

"Woah," he whispered. Wufei rolled his eyes.

"Maxwell, you're acting like…like a kid in a candy store," he said.

"Or in an armory," Duo added.

"I don't think a kid would act like that in an armory…"

"Whatever. Now, help me carry some of these. We have to set them up all over the place."

"Fine."

"Hey guys, look at this!" Hilde motioned for Relena and Shira to come into the room she had just entered. 

"What is it?" Shira asked.

"It's the manual target settings for the mobile dolls!"

"Wouldn't those be in the main navigation control center?" Shira questioned.

"They're the spare controls, in case the main control center is attacked."

"Oh…cool! Let me see something!" Shira sat down in one of the chairs and started typing. After a few minutes, she announced that she was done.

"Done with what?" Relena asked.

"I put a virus into the computer. Now, when they're deployed, it should be pretty funny."

"How'd you know how to do that?" Hilde asked.

"I was put in a boarding school 'cause I started to get into hacking. This is just a simple virus, but it'll still work. Come on, let's try to get outta here."

"Well, I can agree to that plan!" Hilde said.

"Then let's get going!" 

~*~

"These hallways never end," Max muttered to himself. Suddenly he found himself in the mobile suit hangar. "Hmm…how convenient." He remembered the promise that they all made to each other about an hour ago and sighed. _"Well,"_ he thought, _"There's nothing else I can do to help here. I…I guess I should get going."_ He stared up at the space Virgo mobile dolls and sighed, shaking his head. He spotted 2 shuttles near the wall and walked towards them. Then he went into one of them and started up the engines.

"And I'm outta here," he said as the hangar door opened and the shuttle was propelled into space.

## Chapter 7: The One Behind the Scheme

"Wait! I've been this way before!" Relena suddenly exclaimed as they neared a door.

"Then what's in here?" Shira asked.

"It's the main navigation center."

"This is the way we go, then," Hilde decided. She grasped the cold metal doorknob and slowly turned it, flinging the door open. All eyes turned to the trio as they ran into the room.

"Miss Peacecraft," a hoarse voice growled. "It's so nice to see you again."

"Mr. Asazi," Relena whispered. She took another step into the room. The person in the chair in the middle of the room had his back turned to them, but Relena could tell who it was. She gasped as she saw who was at his side.

"What?" Shira asked. "Who is it?" The person standing beside the chair turned around.

"Dorothy Catalonia," Relena muttered.

"Miss Relena, it's so nice to see you," said Dorothy, her pale eyes lighting up. Hilde and Shira both looked confused.

"Dorothy, what are you doing here? I thought you were fighting for the colonies!" Relena demanded. "That's what you were doing one year ago…"

"I go wherever battles take me, Miss Relena!" Dorothy exclaimed. "Now tell me, who are your friends?"

"We're not telling you anything!" Shira snapped. Dorothy just smiled at her. _"Ugh, she's trying to be manipulative, isn't she? I bet it usually works, too…but not on me!"_

"Mr. Asazi, tell me something. Why would you ever want to destroy the colonies?" Relena asked after a long silence.

"My reasons are my own, Miss Peacecraft. They shouldn't be important to you."

"But they _are_ important!" Relena objected. "Now, I want to know why you want to do this!"

"The colonies turned on Earth when they were needed most. They betrayed their birth home and tried to destroy it," Asazi muttered harshly. 

"Mr. Asazi, that's not true-" 

"Save it," Asazi muttered. "You know that's a lie. Now…start charging up the main cannon!"

"Sir, we're only at half power from the blackout!" 

"Charge it up anyways! Then we'll get back up to full power."

"You can't!" Shira exclaimed. "You can't destroy the colonies…I won't let you!" They heard the cannon start charging up, and suddenly the whole ship jerked.

"What the-" Hilde trailed off.

"The ship's turning!" Dorothy exclaimed.

"Why?" Asazi demanded.

"We're not doing this, sir," one of the officers said. 

"Then who is?!" Relena, Hilde, and Shira knew who it was, even if Asazi didn't. Relena smiled to herself.

_"Heero, you've done it again."_

"Mr. Asazi," came a deep, female voice from the shadows. "I know who is doing this…please allow me to find him."

"Of course, Meera," said Asazi. The woman known as Meera bowed her head and left the room through another door behind her.

_"I'll get him,"_ she thought venomously. _"And this time, he won't escape alive."_

~*~

"They're still powering up the main cannon," Heero muttered to himself. "Maybe there's some way I can make it power down…"

"I see you, Gundam pilot." Heero turned to the doorway. He immediately pulled out his gun and stood up. He looked over the person standing there, knowing that he had seen her before. Then he remembered her name…

"Meera Rahn," he muttered.

"You got it."

"What the hell do you want?"

"Why, I want to stop you…of course," Meera said, sneering. "It should be obvious."

"Alright then, let's see what you've got."

"Then step out into the hallway."

"Ladies first."

"Fine." Meera walked out of the room, keeping her eyes on Heero. He came after her, still keeping his gun aimed at her. They stood and stared at each other for a minute, both of their guns withdrawn and aimed at each other. Then, from all parts of the ship, a loud shot rang out.

Asazi heard the shot even from the main control room. He smiled to himself. "Meera has found him," he said. "She should be returning soon." Relena shook her head in disbelief.

_"Heero, you couldn't have really lost…could you?"_

"Sir, the main cannon is ready to fire."

"Then fire!" Asazi snapped.

"Oh no!" Hilde cried.

"You…you…oh, there isn't even a word for people like you!" Shira snapped.

Energy collected and crackled around the cannon. Suddenly the ship turned again, moments before the cannon fired. Asazi cursed as he watched the beam travel into empty space.

"What do we do, sir?"

"Charge up the cannon again! That must have been a mistake…a miscalculation!" Asazi shouted in aggravation. 

"NO!" Shira shouted. She charged at the ship's controls, only to be restrained by a few of the guards that stood in the room. Hilde suddenly got an idea and charged as Shira did, and got restrained the same way. With a secret grin, she pulled away the guard's gun.

Three guards led Hilde, Shira, and Relena out of the control room and into the cellblock. That's when Hilde attacked. She broke away from her captor, quickly aimed the gun, and shot the guard in the chest. He gasped and fell to the ground. Shira grabbed a gun from one of the other guards and attacked him. Hilde attacked the third guard. They were soon piled on the floor.

Relena watched, her eyes wide with horror. 

"Oh, God…" she whispered.

"They'll live," Hilde told her. 

"We can't do any more," Shira said. "We'd might as well try to find our way out of here."

"They're still recharging the cannon," Hilde reminded her.

"But there's nothing more we can do now!" Relena shouted. 

"Okay, you're right. So…we should find a shuttle or something?" Hilde suggested.

"That's the most reasonable thing to do," Shira agreed.

"Then let's go."

~*~

"Okay," Duo said, "I think that's the last one." Wufei nodded in agreement. "Hey! What's through this door?" He pointed to a closed door and began to open it. He and Wufei stumbled into the room moments later.

"Now you know," Wufei said.

"The main control room, I presume?" Duo said.

"Yeah."

"Damn." Duo looked around to see everyone in the room staring at him and Wufei. Then Wufei looked at the chair in the middle of the room.

"I guess you're Asazi?" he asked.

"Yes," came a raspy reply. 

"Well then, I challenge you," Wufei said. Asazi laughed.

"No. I don't partake in duels," was the reply.

"Then you have no honor."

"The ideas of justice and honor that you seem to have mean nothing to me." Wufei balled his hands into fists at his side and gritted his teeth.

## Chapter 8: The Fall of the Asazi Corporation

Another person stumbled into the room. Duo turned around and grinned.

"Hey, Heero! You're just in time!"

"So," Asazi said. "You're the one who changed our course." Heero didn't reply. "And you killed my top agent." Still, Heero didn't reply. "You are the one who fascinates me the most, you know."

"Should I be flattered?" Heero asked. Asazi laughed.

"I didn't figure you were the type with a sense of humor. You know, I've known who you were all along."

"What?" Heero demanded.

"In fact, I worked on Operation Meteor."

"You mean you were trying to save the colonies and now you're trying to destroy them?" Duo asked, slightly amused. 

"That's all you need to know." Heero looked from Asazi to Dorothy, and back again. Dorothy looked at Asazi, almost like she was silently asking for some type of approval. Asazi nodded. Dorothy pulled something out of her boot and lunged at Heero, metal flashing under the light of the ship. Heero realized that she was holding a knife.

Reacting the only way he knew how, Heero lifted his gun and shot at her. She screamed, grasping her arm, where the bullet had hit.

"You…you…" she trailed off. Asazi calmly stood up and walked towards Heero, who still had his gun out. Asazi drew his own gun and aimed at Heero's forehead.

"I guess whoever shoots first wins then," he said. Heero was silent, but he barely flinched. Both of them stood like that for a minute. Finally, Heero pulled the trigger of his gun. Asazi was taken aback in surprise as a bullet penetrated his shoulder, directly above his heart. 

Then the Gundam pilots saw his face. It was worn with age. A large scar ran down his left cheek, and there was a patch over his right eye. His hair was jet black with traces of gray. 

Asazi gasped as blood poured from the wound in his shoulder.

"Call the medic!" he shouted. Almost immediately the medic led him to the medical hall. Asazi looked back at the Gundam pilots as he left.

The soldiers and guards scattered, either leaving the room or scrambling to shut down the controls. 

Most of the ones that stayed ran when they saw that the three pilots planned to destroy the control room. Duo looked at one of the remaining control officers.

"Abort the cannon's fire now!" he said.

"It's not responding to my commands!"

"Damnit! Heero, Wufei, what're we gonna do?!" Neither of the pilots acknowledged his question. "I guess we keep blowing stuff up then." He shrugged.

Once the controls were thoroughly destroyed, Duo went to check about the cannon again. Then he came back.

"We have two problems," he said. "One, the main cannon's still gonna fire. And two, the time bombs that we've set are gonna blow any minute."

"Time bombs?" Wufei repeated.

"Yeah. You didn't know they were timed?"

"Maybe I would have if you had told me!"

"There's no time for that now!" Heero shouted.

"I suggest we get the hell outta here and attack from the Gundams."

"Duo, exactly how many bombs did you guys set up?" Heero asked.

"Um…let's see…I don't know exactly. My best guess is…a lot."

"We'd better hurry. If they go off while we're in here, there won't be anything left of us," Heero pointed out. They stepped over the limp body of Dorothy –who had fallen unconscious due to loss of blood- and started running.

~*~

Quatre and Trowa had almost given up their search for their friends. Then they saw Duo, Wufei, and Heero. 

"Hey, guys!" Quatre called, running towards their fellow Gundam pilots. 

"Hey, good to see that you guys are still in one piece," Duo said. "But now we've gotta get out of here. There are bombs set to go off any minute."

"Okay." They continued to the mobile suit hangar, where Heero had hidden the Wing Zero and where a shuttle was hidden for the other pilots. 

As they departed the Alpha space station they saw mobile dolls being deployed. 

"They still want to fight?" Duo asked. Then they did something surprising: they started attacking each other. "What the…"

"What are they doing?" Quatre asked.

"Who knows? Let's just use this time to get to our Gundams." The shuttle took off for the Peacemillion, which waited nearby.

Meanwhile, the Wing Zero was already prepared for a battle. Heero was puzzled –to say the least- by the behavior of the mobile dolls. He just sat by and watched as the mobile dolls attacked each other.

But he saw that Alpha's main cannon was still ready to fire. As he lifted his buster rifle to fire at the cannon, the Alpha exploded into an inferno of light and fire. Heero shielded his eyes and waited for the blast to subside. All was quiet for a few anxious moments. Then light disappeared, and the pilots dared to look back at the space station.

All they saw was the Earth, the stars, and the deep blackness of space. There was a momentary silence, and then cheers broke out.

"We did it!" Duo cried. The other pilots' comments were similar. After a while of celebration, they decided to go home.

The Gundams were loaded in the maintenance bay for repairs.

"Hey," Duo called jokingly to the mechanics. "Take care of 'em."

"Don't worry!" He looked back and saw...

"Max?!" Max smiled.

"Don't worry," he repeated. "They're in good hands." Duo grinned and walked away.

"Thanks, buddy." He left the maintenance bay and joined the other pilots. They talked cheerfully, but for the most part they were worried inside, even if they didn't show it. Then the ship's loudspeaker came on.

"Gundam pilots to the docking bay," the mechanical voice said. The pilots looked at each other and shrugged, then got up and left for the docking bay. There they saw a beaten and battered shuttle.

"What..." Heero trailed off. The shuttle door slowly opened, and Relena stepped out. Heero's eyes unwillingly lit up with mixed relief and excitement to see her.

"Heero," Relena said. She started off walking towards him, and her pace slowly got faster. Soon she was running top-speed and she jumped into his arms. Heero, too surprised to do anything else, held her tightly.

"Relena," he whispered. And then came a thing that surprised everyone most of all: Heero smiled. 

Duo knew that Hilde was still safe, on the Earth. Or so he thought, until he heard,

"DUO!" And he saw his friend running towards him.

"Hilde?!" he exclaimed in surprise. No sooner had he spoke her name than she was in his arms. He laughed and then pulled away from her almost vice-like embrace. "I thought I told you not to get involved in this kind of stuff!" Hilde saw the slightest hint of amusement in his eyes and then grinned.

"Well," she explained with a shrug, "You know me."

"I have a feeling you had something to do with the mobile dolls attacking each other…" Hilde smiled.

"We put a virus into the target setting controls."

"Ohhh."

Trowa unwittingly held his breath, his eyes not once leaving the shuttle doors. He knew that there was at least one other person on that shuttle. There had to be...

The small talk between friends silenced as everyone took notice of Trowa, who unconsciously took one step towards the quiet shuttle. He kept going until he was almost close enough to touch the outside of it. He looked at the door and stopped.

Then, movement! Fingers grabbed onto the outside of the door. Trowa waited in anticipation...

A foot exited the shuttle. Then another. And finally, Trowa saw her standing there. She pushed her hair away from her face and took a deep breath. Then she saw Trowa, and her eyes lit up. 

They stared at each other for a moment.

"Trowa..." she whispered after a long silence. Finding nothing worth saying, he was silent. 

_"Shira," he thought silently. Shira took a few hesitant steps towards him, and then stopped. Neither of them knew what to say to the other. Suddenly Shira took another step and found herself in Trowa's arms, almost in tears. Trowa was surprised for a few moments, then slowly put his arms around her and smiled a little. Conversations started again and everyone eased up from the battle that had just occurred._

Heero grudgingly released Relena from his grasp. She stepped back a little and smiled at him. The two moved closer and closer to each other until...

Duo was the first to let out a cheer as Relena and Heero shared a kiss. Then Hilde nudged him in the ribs.

"Give you any ideas?" she whispered to him, grinning. His face was blank for a moment and then he laughed.

"Ummm...nope," he lied, looking away from her. She smiled a little, knowing that he wasn't telling her the truth.

Quatre was the only one to hear footsteps as Noin entered the room.

"Well," she said. All eyes turned towards her. "We're about to leave."

"We're going home?" Shira asked.

"To the Earth," Noin replied. Shira smiled.

"That's what I was talking about."

~*~

Relena stared out the front window of the Peacemillion as the Earth grew larger. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned around. It was Heero. Relena smiled and turned back to the window.

"I'm glad that we're going home," she said. "Are you?" Heero gave her no reply. She turned around again, but he wasn't there. "Heero?" she asked. "Where does he keep going off to...?"

Meanwhile, Heero left Relena with her thoughts and was on his way to look at the Gundams. He suddenly stopped and thought about everything that had happened to him...everything that brought him here.

_"We've all come a long way," he noted silently. Then he thought of Relena, and he had a feeling that it wasn't the end of his journey._

End

_Well? What do you think? If you didn't like it –or even if you did- don't worry, there's at least one sequel left. And it should be much better than this one was, if everything keeps going so well. Anyways, please post a review, or e-mail me at [Starseeker__1@hotmail.com][1]. _

   [1]: mailto:Starseeker__1@hotmail.com



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